Addressing at the recently held FICCI-CMSME’s sixth Annual MSME Summit K K Jalan, Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), urged the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country to update the details of their enterprises on the MSME data bank. This, he said was mandatory the updated data would be used for evolving parameters for the growth of MSMEs in the country.

The summit was organised with the theme ‘Propelling MSME Growth: Ways & Means’. Jalan said that the government was also planning to identify 25-30 sub-sectors in MSMEs and focus on these sectors for raising productivity and enhancing the overall landscape of MSMEs. “There is a need to carry out academic work in the space to understand the challenges and issues of the sector,” he added.

Pondering on the financing aspect of the MSMEs, Jalan said that there was a need to carry out research in this area as it has been seen that SME credit by banks was going down. He suggested that for MSMEs, a dedicated financing institute could be established like private sector non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).

According to Jalan, the MSMEs manufacturing has been the focus area, but now is the time to look at MSMEs in a holistic perspective. MSMEs in services, training, retail and wholesale and ancillary industries of big companies, traditional set ups, should also be given due importance.

Taking cue from Jalan, Sanjay Bhatia, President, FICCI-CMSME and Managing Director, Hindustan Tin Works Limited, pointed out the challenges before MSME sector. In his opinion, to propel MSMEs there was a need to build an enabling environment for MSMEs. Though the Government is already working on a MSME Policy, however, he suggested that the MSME Policy document must contain some provision for sector specific dedicated industrial estate/ clusters for MSMEs with the support from State Government. Also, micro enterprises should be exempted from all compliance, inspection and labour laws for certain period. “In order to make MSMEs grow vertically, MSMEs should be facilitated with the tax benefits linked to direct employment generated by MSMEs and Start-up businesses. As per policy benefits, MSMEs adopting latest clean and green technologies across sectors should be incentivized by the government. The Government should look for a possible collaboration with institutions which can help MSMEs in their R&D activities,” he appealed.

“The programme ‘Make in India’ should focus on MSMEs as it is the sector which will generate employment and not the big industries where manpower was being replaced with technology,” supplemented Dr. A Didar Singh, Secretary General, FICCI & FICCI-CMSME. He further shared that the objective of the summit was to create awareness and understanding among the Indian MSMEs on the various schemes and initiatives being taken by the government and private institutions/organizations for the development of MSME sector.